New Delhi: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has planned delivering the 1st module of the space station, Bhatatiya Antariksh Station, in the orbit around 2028. Currently, vitals of the space station are under investigation and testing stage, said an officer familiar with the development.
Putting the 1st module of the indigenous space station in the orbit is part of the long-drawn space roadmap-2047 of the ISRO. By that time, India will have a lunar base as well. Once lunar base is built, people can travel to the moon and scientists can conduct various types of inter-planetary experiments there. The launch of lunar base will also open up the moon based economy for the country.
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Officials of the ISRO said that the space agency was working on the mission to build a complete space station by 2034, which would be take to the space at the height of around 120-140 km from the earth. ISRO scientists are also working on development of an advanced rocket, Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV), which would place the Bharatiya Antarish Station at its designated point in space by 2035.
“ISRO has developed the prototype of the proposed space station. Currently, there is only one international space centre, built under joint collaboration of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada. It rotates around the earth at the height of around 351-358 km. It has the space for accommodating six astronauts at a time. India’s space centre is proposed to have the living space for three astronauts at a time,” said a scientist.
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Though it’s not yet known as how much time the Indian space centre will take to orbiting around the earth, the existing space centre takes around 91 minute to move around. “Development of the Indian space centre might cost around ₹12,000-15,000 crore and annual expense could be around 25,000 on its operation and maintenance,” said the scientist.
As per the space roadmap-2047, ISRO would launch fresh lunar mission in three stages, starting from 2028 with launch of Chandrayaan-4. Chandrayaan-4 is being designed in the way that it could collect the samples of Moon surface and return back to earth. Next missions, Chandrayaan 5 to 7, intend to send humans on the moon, which will also herald India’s moon tourism.
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In 2024 ISRO plans to undertake 2 unmanned missions of the Gaganyaan to validate human-rated launch vehicle & the orbital module in actual flight. Multiple sub-orbital missions using a test vehicle are also planned to validate the Crew Escape System under various abort conditions.
